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Kumar Laxshimalla graduated as a chemical engineer in India in 1978 and worked in that country for 10 years before taking jobs in South Korea and Brunei for several years and immigrating to Canada about 16 years ago.

"It really became an asset for me, having so much experience . . . working with international companies," Laxshimalla says. "The international barrier has really collapsed in the last 10 years."

He was hired this March by IMV Projects, an engineering, procurement and construction management company headquartered in Calgary, as manager of process engineering. Laxshimalla credits his breadth of global work experience for landing his current position.

Engineers with global experience, whether they're from Canada or abroad, are in high demand right now, according to Kurt Kennedy, vice-president of corporate services for IMV Projects.

"The spotlight is on Calgary right now as a good career opportunity for top-notch talent around the world," Kennedy says. "It's very valuable to have international project experience."

The company has roughly doubled its workforce recently, rising to about 850 workers from 450 in the past 18 months alone. The firm expects to continue its hiring frenzy, paying particular attention to experienced engineers from abroad and those working locally who have travelled the world to work on mega-projects.

"The Alberta market is one of the most visible markets in the world right now in terms of large projects," Kennedy says. "There's a lot of experience around the world in terms of project execution excellence and best practices that we can bring to our project environment here in Alberta."

Kevin O'Brien, president of IMV Projects, says that as large-scale projects in the oilsands continue to ramp up, engineers who have worked on major global projects will be a hot commodity.

O'Brien said people with the depth of experience that Laxshimalla possesses are rare in the market.

Just as Calgary companies like IMV Projects escalate their international headhunting efforts in places such as the U.S., Australia and the U.K., they're finding themselves in direct competition with companies in those countries.

This month, a group of recruiters from Australia, New Zealand and Peru came to Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver on a hiring blitz to lure Canadian engineers and other highly skilled workers to that country.

"These are global industries and any Canadian oil and gas office looks like the UN these days," says Rupert Merrick, event organizer for the job expo. "There are 2,500 Australians currently working in downtown Calgary."

The events come on the heels of two "hugely successful" similar recruitment expos held last year, he adds.

With its own aggressive hiring plans, IMV Project's Kennedy says it's a matter of using all strategies to tap into top talent wherever it might be.

"We have done more over the last several years to increase our visibility in the print media for recruitment and also the online (job boards)," he says. "What's going to be an ever-increasing part of our recruitment is work-sharing efforts for our clients."

That means tapping into its parent firm's global engineering resources, Wood Company, to track down the types of engineers they need.

IMV Projects doesn't shy away from hiring recent immigrants without Canadian experience or professional designations, either. "We've always recruited on the basis of hiring for attitude and aptitude - willingness to learn - and then training for skills," Kennedy says.

For young graduates just coming out of university, the trend means that as grads progress in their careers, taking roles abroad could serve them well when they decide to return to Canada.

"I think young engineers will definitely benefit from (having) international experience," Laxshimalla says. "It's so that not only can they focus on Canadian regulations (and) standards, but exposing them to international cultures and experience."

About one-third of IMV Project's workforce has international experience, whether they are from other countries or those who live in Canada but have worked abroad in the past, Kennedy says.

Alberta's oilpatch is still a relatively "young" industry compared to some other locations in the world, but many global clients now expect to see engineers with international experience, best practices and project execution, likening Alberta's industry to the North Sea or the Gulf of Mexico.

Going forward, global engineers will continue to be in high demand.

"It's definitely a huge asset," Laxshimalla says.

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